I’m delighted to learn of the issuance of a third edition of The Heritage Guide to the Constitution. I’m even more impressed to learn that the “fully revised” third edition “was rewritten from the ground up.” (I’m quoting a promotional flyer that I’ve received.)
The Heritage Foundation will launch the third edition at an event on Constitution Day, September 17, that features a panel of scholars and a panel of judges.
When the first edition was published nearly two decades ago, I praised it as “an invaluable reference work that anyone interested in learning more about the Constitution should have on his bookshelf.” I’ve frequently consulted it and the second edition.
Like the earlier editions, the third edition consists primarily of over two hundred brief essays—the vast majority no more than a page or two in length—on every clause or subclause in the Constitution. Each essay attempts to explain the original meaning of the provision that it addresses as well as to set forth the current state of the law on that provision.
The volume features a foreword by former Attorney General Ed Meese and a preface by Justice Samuel Alito. Essay authors include three dozen or so federal judges and dozens more law professors and Supreme Court practitioners.
Congratulations to senior editor Josh Blackman and executive editor John G. Malcolm on their monumental achievement!